Photo by flickr user sevensixfive
Pick a noun beginning with the prefix ‘re-’ and someone has applied it to the New East Side Community project. Now East Baltimore Development, Inc. (EBDI) has approved the acquisition of 800 to 900 properties in addition to the land already allocated for the undertaking, which is located near the Johns Hopkins Medical College.
EBDI’s president and CEO Jack Shannon resigned in April, but the nonprofit is plowing ahead under the direction of interim chief Christopher Shea, with the cooperation of the city government and charities including the Annie E. Casey and Morris Goldseker Foundations.
The redevelopment (there’s one ‘re’) has been underway for over six years and has already displaced at least 400 East Side households. The new acquisition will likely displace as many again. EBDI says its aim down the road is to help former residents move back into new or rehabilitated homes in the neighborhood at little to no net cost. The ultimate, 88-acre goal (perhaps deferred by a recent $50 million budget cut) is the construction and operation of a spanking new K-8 public school, a state-of-the-art science and technology research park, new graduate housing for Johns Hopkins, a new hotel at the corner of East Eager and North Wolfe Streets, and 80,000 square feet of retail space that will hopefully draw fresh business to the area.
Shea and others are optimistic about additional plans for an East Side MARC Train Station, but this possibility remains, for the moment, simply a species of optimism.
What have you heard about the future of East Baltimore?
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[...] houses were gobbled up last week by the East Baltimore Development Inc (EBDI). As the Urban Discoveries blog notes the initiative is actually taking off, after countless cleared blocks, lots and fields have laid fallow for years (EBDI was established [...]